Friday, December 5, 2008

I learned back on February 5, that roasting vegetables in the crockpot was easy and fool-proof. We've eaten a lot of roasted vegetables since, but I always kind of stick to my comfort zone and pick out the same ones at the grocery store. Not this time. I wanted some sort of traditional winter-y vegetable dish to share at our upcoming holiday dinner. So I googled winter vegetables.Carrots.Parsnips.Rutabagas.

I know carrots (quite well), and I did buy parsnips for the first time this year (they look like big white carrots!) but have never bought a rutabaga. The produce guy was eager to lead the way, and for the rest of the afternoon I sang "rutabaga sits in the old gum tree" even though I know darned well that those aren't the correct words. I just couldn't get it out of my head.

This is enough food to feed about 12. I used the 6.5 quart crockpot. Peel all of your vegetables, and cut into 2-inch chunks. Feed scraps to the guinea pigs. I'm usually a huge fan of the baby carrot (because of laziness), but wanted a more rugged look for this dish. If you would like to use baby carrots, go for it, and don't cut them. Chop the parsley.

Put all the vegetables into your crockpot, and add the olive oil, basil, salt, and pepper. Toss with your hands to coat fully coat the vegetables.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4-5. The vegetables are done when they have reached desired tenderness. I cooked ours on low for 6 hours, then on high for about 90 minutes.

The Verdict.

I love the ease of roasting vegetables in the crockpot. I would have needed to cook this much food in batches in the oven, and stirred them a few times to keep them from burning (I am no good with the oven!) but in this case, I put the veggies on in the morning and was out for most of the day. The kids picked out a few carrots, but found them to be spicy.

28 comments:

Katelyn
said...

A good, easy way to use up leftovers of roasted vegetables (if you make too much) is to make a quick soup. Saute a bit of onion and garlic in olive oil, then toss in your veggies and enough broth to cover. Heat through, then puree it and add salt and pepper to taste. That's just the base - add whatever else you like and/or have kicking around to mix it up.

I love Rutabagas! My sis in law is from Scotland and showed us how to make them boiled, mashed, salt and peppered. They call them Nips (turnips--they aren't). I haven't ever roasted them, I will definitely try.

I dreamed last night that you had your own cooking show but they were having to film it in your house while they built the set. You were excited that you had your own show but overwhelmed at having a camera crew in your house for five days.

Oh, I love this one! I too have a tough time roasting veggies in the oven without burning them. Putting parsnips and rutabagas on my shopping list. Thank you for all you are doing for us. We are new fans. Have tried 3 of your fantastic recipes and I'm happy to report my guys have had seconds every time!

Do you realize what you've done??? You've got TONS of readers who now know about rutabagas!! This means I'll NEVER be able to find them in the stores now, and I'm almost positive I was the only person ever buying them (and having to explain EVERY time to the cashier that they are indeed NOT a turnip)!! LOL!!!! I rediscovered these luscious yummy veggies over the summer when I was told I couldn't have green leafy veggies due to some meds I'm taking. Lovely little buggers, ya think? I do have a question, though...did you find them to be a bit fibrous? Trying to figure out if I wasn't peeling them deep enough. Also, did you chop off the ends or just peel them clean? Mine tend to have hard stalk-like pieces in them and it turned me off a bit so I haven't cooked them up in a while.

Where's the garlic in this recipe? I do love roasted vegetables, but I've always got to put in chunks of onion and garlic.

Not too long ago, I successfully made both meatloaf & roasted veggies simultaneously in my 6qt. crock. It was a small meatloaf, only 1 lb. of meat, and I put it in a small flat-bottomed pyrex bowl. I filled the space around the bowl with my vegetable chunks, and it worked perfectly! It allowed us to spend the early evening at the beach, knowing a full dinner would be hot and ready when we came home. And I owe it to you, because I never would have thought to put a smaller cooking vessel inside my crock.

It's funny,When I think "roasted vegetables" those are the ones I would use. I didn't even know you could roast other vegetables. Rutabagas are one of my favourite vegetable, but where I'm from we call the turnips (and turnips are called white turnips). I like them boiled with butter and pepper.I often make a very similar dish in the crockpot, but add in a little onion and garlic as well. Another way to mix it up is to use a different oil-based salad dressing instead of the oil. Just pick the flavour you are in the mood for.

Oh, no! Kookuburra is in my head now!! LOL I just made roasted winter vegetables in my oven last night! I just drizzle olive oil, salt & pepper, then add shallots, garlic and whatever roots I have on hand, which is usually beets, carrots, celery root & sweet potatoes. I'll have to try rutabagas & parsnips. Good idea!!

My dad grows rutabaga and kohlrabi in his garden and every year he offers us some... I have never taken him up on it because I remember having them as a kid and not liking them. (I remember them being kinda tough and stringy) but I really want to try this in the crockpot! They sound good seasoned, too. I think my mom just steamed them plain with no seasoning of any kind. Thanks for the great idea, as usual! :)Susan

Your guinea pigs are adorable! As a pig owner, I loved that your recipe directions included feeding the scraps to the piggies. Our pigs won't have anything to do with baby carrots, but they love the carrot scraps from the CSA carrots. They have very discriminating little palates. Or they're just picky.

I just love your blog and sense of humor. I'm hoping/dreaming you'll have 'another year of crockpotting' for 2009This recipe looks really good and when DH returns will make this. We love rutabagas...but the kids don't. My Mama cooked them alot when I was growing up, but it took my mature palate to appreciate them.Sherry

It makes me happy to know you exist. My friends think I'm crazy because there's always a song in my head. I'm so happy to hear you singing about rutabagas in mine! And it cracks me up that your kids said these were "spicy"...that's one of my kids' words, too!

Love your site--I've passed it on to many friends. I do a pot roast with root veggies, its from Robin Miller- a little different twist on standard pot roast:

Directions

1 onion, chopped

4 small red potatoes, quartered

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 turnip, peeled and chopped

1 rutabaga, peeled and chopped

1 (3-pound) chuck roast

Salt and ground black pepper

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Arrange onion, potatoes, carrots, turnip, and rutabaga in bottom of slow cooker. Season beef all over with salt and black pepper. Rub flour all over beef. Place roast on top of vegetables in slow cooker.

Whisk together tomato sauce, brown sugar, chili powder, cumin, mustard powder, and garlic powder. Pour mixture over beef. Cover and cook on LOW for 12 hours or on HIGH for 8 hours.

I tried this immediately, for a pot luck and it was a hit!! I did get a little more carried away with the 'root' theme :-) Potato, carrot, turnip, parsnip, sweet potato, beet, rutabega, onion, and one more I've never seen before and I can't remember the name. I also added a generous dollop of chopped garlic, and chopped ginger. People in line behind me at the grocery store were all asking questions and taking note of the ingredients. I filled a 6qt crockpot, and was left with perhaps 2 cups after the party. Thanks for all the compliments!!

Well,by using my eyes,I found the words post a comment.Amazing!Found your blog on line somewhere,the importance being I found you.Ready to try a bunch of your recipies.I am totally new at this so everyone mentor me if you will.Now.GO!

Just found your blog tonight, and have already bookmarked tons of recipes! I was excited to discover that my local library has your book on order! :)

Where I'm from (in Nova Scotia) rutabagas are called turnip. I didn't know they were called rutabagas until I moved to Ontario. Also, until then I hadn't realized there was another type of turnip - although I used to wonder why turnips in cartoons (and Super Mario 2) were always small and white lol.

Anyway, we mostly eat turnip boiled and mashed with a bit of sugar to take away the bitterness. At most holiday dinners around here (Thanksgiving, Xmas, Easter, etc.) people have turkey with mashed potatoes, turnip (i.e. rutabaga), and carrots - and that's it - oh, and jarred cranberry sauce. I always wondered what all these other dishes (e.g. candied yams) I'd hear about on TV were, until I got older and started reading things online, etc.

To the people who made comments about the stringiness, etc. - I think little ones are usually better than big ones (the same is true with parsnips). Some are more bitter than others and require more sugar to be added. Also, some are just not good, and there's not much you can do about that. For example, the turnip at my mother's Thanksgiving dinner was completely tasteless - but the one at my FIL's Thanksgiving dinner was delicious.

I made this dish on the weekend for guests and I just HAD to comment. This. was. perfect.

I was cooking for 14 people so I jampacked my crockpot with carefully selected vegetables that would not become a big pile of mush: rutabaga, parsnips, carrots, sweet potato, acorn squash, golden beets, FRESH brussel sprouts and whole mini red onions. I cut it all into large chunks and added the seasoning as directed. It was SO good!

I had planned to start this dish much earlier in the day, so I ended up cooking on high for about 4 hours. The vegetables turned out slightly crunchy (the good kind of crunchy). My only suggestion is not to fill your pot to the brim, like I did, so that you can stir things up. A couple of things on the bottom are a little black/brown, but strangely still delicious!